Bits and Pieces

June 18, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Our first summer in the house and he’s putting in a new garden at the front. We’ve been scouting local nurseries and while he pretends that my preferences matter, he really is just humouring me. Ric has very specific tastes in flowers and most diametrically opposed to me. The viburnum featured, for example, will sit […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #53: Lottery

June 17, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

A psychic told Ric that he would win $33 million in a lottery. “Good,” he responded, “because I have no retirement plan.” Always the joker. Still, it’s something we love to fantasize about: what would we do? Ric felt as if he’d won the lottery when diagnosed with Stage III cancer. Six months later, the […]

Orange Is An Anomaly

June 16, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

ArtisticallyNaturedOccasionallyMadAlwaysLearningYearning… According to the True Colours system of analyzing personalities, I am flaming orange, with the least amount of gold, and a balance between green and blue. What that means is that I dislike structure, am highly creative (and a risk-taker) and in equal measure crave order, and feel inadequate. In other words, finding balance […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #52: anomaly

June 10, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

A doctor recently referred to me as an anomaly. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it from the medical profession. Hardly reassuring. The other day, walking amongst the tall green trees, wondering at the richness of the foliage around me, I spotted a twig of a branch with three red leaves on it. Odd […]

Green Is A Novice

June 9, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

I catch myself playing that soul-stripping game of comparison, and come up feeling dreadfully inadequate. My writing is lacking, my photography sucks, and it’s an embarrassment to self that I even post my art. Not actually – but this is the fallout from comparison. I need to turn this thinking around: I am blessed to […]

A Bargain at $9.99

June 7, 2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

For Proscenium’s Friday Follies. Sign found in the local deli.

Wild Flowers

June 7, 2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Amongst the roots and tangleof overgrowth and debrisflowers grow wild beauty unexpected,delicate, yet tenacious –infusion of hope. (For Lens-artists challenge: wild)

Dwelling Places

June 5, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

I call the featured image the Back Door Only Cottage. Homes fascinate me. Behind each door or window there is a story waiting to be told. Or not – even more intriguing. Despite the weathered appearance of this bird house, the occupants seemed happy enough. Fire escapes make me think big city, but this was […]

Into the Woods, Nostalgia

June 4, 2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I search for her in wooded places,where trees are guardians,and wildlife reigns Where light dances with shadowsand children’s hearts are free to imagine. Wooded areas, especially when there is a stream, take me back to childhood and the countless hours spent in search of nature’s wonders. (For Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge: nostalgia. […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #51: Green

June 3, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

“It’s not easy being green,” Kermit the Frog sings. I suppose not if you are green with envy. “I have to smoke,” my father would say. “I’m too green to burn.” I am in love with the multi shades of green that mark our Spring season here in Ontario, so I have decided to make […]

Back Seat Only

I can’t remember a timewhen elegance chose meto sit in the front seatride along in style She’d be clad in whiteand I’m ever too messycan’t control myselfmight tarnish the upholstery She’d want to go shoppingrings and jewels flashinglike Pretty Womanafter the haul I’m second-handtypically slink in and outgrabbing what I need and goinglest anyone see […]

Having a Why

(This is found poem, previously posted on OneWoman’s Quest II)

Over It!

One day it’s so mild that I don’t bother with a coat, the next we wake up to snow on the ground. The plants pushing up through the soil seem a little more patient than me – as if they are humouring nature’s fickleness. I’m ready for clear change. A pair of finches just flew […]